CLARK, James, (brother of Christopher Henderson Clark and uncle of John Bullock
Clark),
a Representative from Kentucky; born near the Peaks of Otter in
Bedford County, Va., January 16, 1779; moved with his parents to Clark County,
Ky., in 1794; was educated by private tutors; attended Pisgah Academy, Woodford
County, Ky.; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in
Winchester, Ky., in 1797; member of the State house of representatives in 1807
and 1808; appointed judge of the court of appeals in 1810; elected as a
Republican to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses and served from March 4,
1813, until taking a leave of absence from the Congress on April 8, 1816;
resigned prior to August 1816; judge of the circuit court 1817-1824; elected as
an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of Henry Clay; reelected to the Twentieth Congress; and elected as
an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-first Congresses and served from
August 1, 1825, to March 3, 1831; chairman, Committee on Territories
(Twenty-first Congress); member of the State senate 1831-1835; elected, as a
Whig, Governor of Kentucky in 1836, and served until his death in Frankfort,
Ky., September 27, 1839; interment in the private burial ground of the old
Clark home at Winchester, Clark County, Ky.